Two men from indicted BitTorrent group imprisoned for movie piracy

The group, called IMAGiNE, released movies they recorded in theaters.

On Friday, two men were sentenced to jail and fined in the Eastern District Court of Virginia after pleading guilty to several counts of copyright infringement. Willie Lambert, 57, and Sean Lovelady, 27, were part of a larger group called IMAGiNE, whose members recorded movies in theaters and then uploaded those recordings to BitTorrent.

IMAGiNE had a reputation for being the first to upload pirated versions of major movies soon after the movie's release. Members of the group allegedly made separate video and audio recordings of the movie and then stitched the media together before uploading the pirated copy to peer-to-peer networks. The group stopped uploading movies sometime around September 2011, and in April 2012 four members of the group, including Lambert and Lovelady, were formally charged with one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement, four counts of criminal copyright infringement, and one count of distribution of a work being prepared for commercial distribution.

As Ars reported in April, each of those charges carried a maximum sentence of five years of jailtime, but Lambert will serve only 30 months after pleading guilty, and Lovelady will serve 23 months. In addition, Lambert was ordered to pay $449,514 in restitution, Lovelady only $7,500.

According to TorrentFreak, "a report prepared on behalf of the major movie studios further alleged that IMAGiNE was responsible for 41 percent of all instances of English language theatrical audio piracy from September 2009 to September 2011."

A shoplifter in OH will get more time than a person who commits certain types of vehicular manslaughter in OH. But only a handful of states make negligent vehicular manslaughter a crime at all; it's not in Ind.

So are movies worth less to protect than songs? Or is jail time considered being equivalent of $1.5 million in fines compared to the multimillion dollar fines for downloading a handful of songs?

It just seems odd that they can individually record the soundtracks and video for full length feature films, and get a lower fine than if someone limits themselves to a few songs. But you would think the films would be much more costly to produce and therefore have much more value in terms of losses to piracy.

I was locked up from 16 to 18 for a fist fight I did not start with an 18 year old. I was 15 at the time too. 2 1/2 years total. But because I was sucker punched and then pursued him as he ran off it wasn't self-defense. I chased him from the side yard to the street in front of the house. I tackled him on the grass in the middle of the chase, did a flying knee to his stomach, he got up, ran into the street, we squared-off, and I threw one shot to his eye socket, knocking him down. He got up and ran home to call the police on me!

The funniest part of it all was the fact that the judge who oversaw the review of my case due to the original referee who sentenced me being absent that day, he opened my folder, read the contents, looked at me confused and somewhat surprised, and asked me what I wanted to do with my own case. This was unexpected, since the facility I was sent to told me I was going into their aftercare program. I, having been conditioned to take full accountability for myself and my behavior, thought it was some sort of reverse psychology trick to prove I wasn't "rehabilitated" yet.

The judge saw me hesitate and then asked: "Do you want me to just throw the entire thing out?" Convinced it was a trap, but unable to resist the possibility of freedom after so long, I said yes, I did want it thrown out. Ten seconds later I was a free man, and the judge apologized for the absurdity of serving 2 1/2 years for a simple assault case. Apology accepted, mind blown.

There are other interesting facts to this case as well. For 2 of the 2 1/2 years I was 800 miles away from my family in the Detroit area, pretty much guaranteeing me not having many visits, besides the once a year bus visit the facility sponsored.

Another thing worth noting, I was locked up in a maximum security facility called The Burton Center for a couple months before I was "placed" in my facility. While there, locked in a concrete and steel room with two other lively chaps, one night while the third "roommate" was off for his hour of not being in the damn room, my second "roommate" asked me as the lights dimmed: "Hey Harte, do you ever have gay thoughts?" To which I replied, "No Barry, go to sleep." It is worth mentioning that Barry was about 6'4" tall and probably around 235lbs.

Before all that though, I was held in the Wayne County Juvenile Detention Center. One day after about a week spent in that wonderful place, we had a group meeting that was absolutely horrifying. In our group of 30 or so juveniles, two of us were white. The other fellow was maybe 120lbs soaking wet. In this meeting, the all-black staff took the conversation in an interesting direction. They started talking about the white man. They started blaming us for everything that was keeping the black man down, and what they should do about it. Well, that was awesome, but the next day was even better.

The following day, while waiting for my turn to play ping-pong, I was challenged by a fellow resident who saw the big white boy (they called me The Undertaker, and for a good reason) as a chance to improve his status among his peers. I literally had to choke him unconscious. Later on that day I was told while we were walking through the hallways in groups by a random black stranger that "I better have a shank ready, x is coming for me." Things were off to a wonderful start.

I have many, many more stories, enough to write a book easily. I almost had my skull smashed in with a 15lb dumbbell that was stolen from the gym, after I had to defend myself from an attack by a dickhead in the lunch line. This was because I had earned my next level in that facility, which in turn assigned me to a new place in the lunch line for our group. Well, the guy at the front of the group I had just advanced out of, told me I wasn't good enough to stand in front of him, and that I had to go to the back of the line. Well, I knew the rules, so I took my place as I was supposed to do. A second later I was shoved hard out of the line. An overhand bomb, some confusion as staff converged, and a trip to the ground via a restraint later, I was on the floor trying to wiggle closer, just so I could maybe bite the fellow whom I had knocked silly. (That same fellow I bombed on had earlier accused the white man for why "his people" dealt crack, and when I disagreed with him, he threatened to throw me off the cliff we were next to. (yes, we were on top of Keweenaw mountain, look it up, most beautiful place I have ever laid eyes on, and it had cliffs.) I of course told him he would be coming with me if he tried.)

After I was brought outside from off the floor, the staff who took me outside said, and I quote, "We saw what you did to that nigger, good job!" Imagine my fucking horror. I was surrounded on both sides by racists. What a great environment to spend my teen years in...

After that was the riots. Then the steroid staff that were flown in from across the country from other YSI facilities arrived and started planting faces in the ground. One of my good friends in there actually had his lip stuck between two teeth from an impromptu meeting with the floor tile, and had to be driven 45 minutes away to the nearest hospital.

What is the moral of this story? I don't have a clue, but what I can tell you is that sending people like that to prison is not helping anyone or anything on this god damned planet. Prison, in all its forms, is an evil wretched place. There is no rehabilitation there. None whatsoever. Juvenile programs are the same. Sending people to a place that is heartbreaking, cruel, and soul-crushing can do far more damage to a person than they ever did to society. Many people who go through this, they come out and are never the same for the rest of their lives. If you have not felt what it truly feels like to be imprisoned, cut off from family, surrounded by strangers, many that hate you, you will never understand. It is a horror among horrors. If you are not tough mentally and physically, life is going to teach you a side of it you might not have ever known existed.

There is a saying that the value of a human life can not have a price put on it. If that is true, why do we throw away so many of our brothers and sisters into this senseless meat grinder? It may seem a fitting punishment, but in 90% of cases it isn't. When you throw a civilized man into that situation there are only two real outcomes. Either you learn real fast how to be an animal yourself, or the animals feast on your soul.

Low income families mostly. When you watch a cam on an old tube tv it is far more easy on the eyes than a nice 1080p picture. Also worth noting is that if you put a crappy cam on something like an ipod touch or your phone, it becomes highly watchable. You would apparently be surprised.

Low income families mostly. When you watch a cam on an old tube tv it is far more easy on the eyes than a nice 1080p picture. Also worth noting is that if you put a crappy cam on something like an ipod touch or your phone, it becomes highly watchable. You would apparently be surprised.

Nonsense. A 1080p video is fine on an old Tube TV. It will simply be downscaled. The real problem is having something that can do the decoding and being able to hook that up to an ancient TV.

The better way if for US ISPs to follow the law (17 USC 512 (i)) and terminate subscribers who repeatedly seed copyrighted products. Because ISPs largely ignore the law, it forces content owner to do these types of extreme tactics. The real question is why Willie Lambert gets prosecuted and Verizon & AT&T who do 1000 times more damage every day than these guys did are getting away scot free. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics says that musicians wages are down 45% since p2p technology arrived. US Home video sales (DVD, BluRay, PayTV, VOD, Streaming) are down 25% to $18.5B in 2011 from $25B in 2006.The first BitTorrent search engines debuted in 2004. Recorded music is down worldwide from $27B in 1999 (Napster) to $15B in 2011. Video Game revenue is down 13% from 2007. In the meantime broadband revenues grew from zero to $50B a year in the US with p2p as the killer app that drove broadband adoption. Those are real jobs lost that are not coming back until the public realizes that these are your friends and neighbors whose careers are being destroyed by lack of copyright enforcement. Who is destroying these industries? ISPs who ignore the law 17 USC 512 (i) and do not terminate repeat infringers. US Telecom makes >$400B a year, creative industries less than <$80B a year. Verizon $120B a year, Viacom (CBS, MTV & Paramount Pictures) $14B a year, Warner Music Group $2.4B a year.

I'm sorry, I don't normally say nor think this, but if you're not an industry shill you're in the wrong line of work.

The better way if for US ISPs to follow the law (17 USC 512 (i)) and terminate subscribers who repeatedly seed copyrighted products.

I'm sorry, I don't normally say nor think this, but if you're not an industry shill you're in the wrong line of work.

I thought he was going to get into how much copyright infringement the media companies do, and while they can be sued, nobody's charged criminally. Why do broadcast networks put their logo on the screen? Those didn't come around due to Joe Schmo taping things, they came about after other networks were rebroadcasting Court TV without permission during the OJ trial and similar instances. You still see news reports with other logos sometimes, but usually they can cover those with a crawler. Cap and distribute the "stolen" rebroadcast, and you can be sent to federal prison.

His message was covered by the recent six strikes rules, maybe he's just pushing for support. It's still too early to see what effect it will have, but like most media-corporation purchased legislation, it'll likely go awry.

Hey author, the article does not state where this is taking place, or I am retarded. Is this even in The U.S.?

Sorry, left that out. They were convicted in the Eastern District Court of Virginia. I made the change in the story. Thanks!

Thank you kindly ma'am.

What a story.

Have you ever considered authoring this in mainstream channels? I'm absolutely deadly serious - it was a compelling read.

That only scratches the barest bit of the surface that is part of my life. There is so much before, and so much after, I don't know where to begin...

I wasn't always a good person, I can tell you that. Experiences, and time have changed me though. They have made me wiser, and having seen all that I have seen, I now know that above all else I want to help others who need it. I have been there myself, and empathy is a the most powerful emotion I know.

I could write a book just on how a group of friends and I robbed a K-Mart blind, all the way to the point where they knew what we were doing, but never could figure out the how of it. The trick was to not leave the store with anything on my body. The theft always took place AFTER we had all left the building. I take full credit for the plan because one day, while driving an rc car through the store, I noticed that the inside garden center had a gap in the wall at the bottom that divided it from the outside garden center. In the winter, the inside garden center was used for layaway. You can do the math from there. Fences were climbed, with great haste at night.

Then there was my misadventures in military prison. And the three months I lived in a storage closet in winter with no heat. I had my pc in there with me though, those light bulb socket plugs sure came in handy. Or the time the police told me I was going to go to prison for 50 years minimum for a string of crimes that all took place when I was in the area, spread out over weeks, starting with an apartment fire, followed by another apartment fire, followed by a man getting his skull crushed with a bat on a bike trail at 6am in a small town, less than a 1/4 mile from where my friend and I were walking. The crazy part? I was at both apartments the day they burnt down. The first one I was only there earlier in the day, the second one I woke up while it was burning down. The cherry on top? The guy who had his skull bashed in was the man who leased the apartments... When I went to the police a week later after finding this out, they gave me a lie detector test, then told me I was a liar (I was absolutely not lying, and I will never harm a person who is not in fact harming myself, and never would I aim to kill unless there were a threat to my life). The thing of it was, as my friend and I were walking in that area as the crime happened, we came across a drunk on a bike who had a softball bat. When I watched the man pass, he became violent and started asking what the fuck I was looking at. A diffused situation and a week later, when I saw fliers asking for information about the crime, I immediately went to the police to tell them what I knew. Little did I know I was the main suspect, and nothing I could say would make them believe me.

In the end, they found the man I described to them and he was arrested and charged with the 1st degree attempted murder. Not before shitting a brick in my pants however, and not before making my mother cry.

My guidance counselor in middle school told me I would blow up and snap by the time I was 20 and kill people. My mom had certain relations with one of my friends, twice actually (two friends). One was from that academy I was in.

There is also the story of when I was in the desert of Arizona with my closest friends, enjoying some magic mushrooms, when a plane crashed in the distance, or so I thought. Soon, I was in a real-life Metal Gear situation, my military training fully kicked in as I had to low crawl between SUV's flying through the desert, remaining undiscovered all the way until I made it out of the field and onto a sidewalk. I figured I was golden then, but apparently the cops like to stop random guys who are walking alone at 3am, while a huge fire lights up the night sky nearby. Dealing with the police on mushrooms, when you are trying to have a spiritual enlightenment, is a bit of a downer. Funny thing to that was the cops pulled me from their plastic cave/truck at one point, and as I was made to sit on the front hood of a car with about a dozen sheriffs staring into my eyes as I was made to look up into a flashlight. Then the guy in charge of this demonstration declared that my eyes were consistent with smoking weed. Little did they know I was seeing them through kaleidoscope vision. The night was not complete however, until we had all of the sheriffs pull their tazers out and aim them at my friend, who looked at me like I was supposed to somehow help him. Oh, that, and the fact that as we walked home after they let us go, I was about two blocks from my house when I realized we had left fear and loathing playing, on repeat, with the sound somewhere around 11. Never felt closer to Hunter S. Thompson than that night.

Did I mention I slept through a gas attack orchestrated by our drill sergeants? Two days before that I had dug a dirt hole while we were out on our ftx, and that night I christened it by fornicating with a girl who looked so much like the woman from the Matrix, that I told her that the first time I saw her, slightly in awe. The next night, while my fat battle buddy was off back at the barracks praying his fatty self would be able to pass his run in the morning, which was the last chance before he got to do another 9 weeks of hell, as I was showering from my canteen outside the tent I noticed my battle buddy had left his running shoes... Or so I thought. When I opened the flap of my tent Carrie Anne Moss' twin was in there, naked and waiting for me. She asked if I minded! HA! That was why when the drill instructors started popping gas in everyones sleeping faces the next morning, I grabbed my mask from next to my mat, put it on, and rolled over to continue my hard earned sleep, while a chorus of screams straight from hell continued well past dawn. Ill just stop here, I have no doubt tarnished my name enough for one evening.

Even with these tales, I am only scratching the surface. One of my friends favorite things to do is load me with gifts of whiskey and sit back and listen.

Did I mention the time myself and two others hatched a plan to rob a coke dealer? With a meat mallet? Suffice it to say, after we got split up, them with the cocaine and the car, me with my feet and no money or phone, I had some experiences you can only have in the city limits of Detroit. After an offer for a blow job from a crack head with a box of Churches Chicken that came from a dumpster, A run-in with the man who sold her crack (he beat her near to death right in front of me, for bringing me there in front of the spot), a kind offer from a man in an apartment who let me use his phone only to return as I was using it with him dressed in a black string (I noticed he had hats for every situation, in every color on his wall), A run-in with a pro at a gas station who was going to help me, if the crack head she sent me with had taken me where she said to go (he took me instead where you might imagine a crack head goes, to find more crack, little did I know), a theft of a bicycle belonging to said crack head (it was hard, I had to wait the beast out, until he had finally passed out in spite of the crack at 5am while I watched him and a crap show about people stuck in the past with dinosaurs, on a black and white tv), and the bike ride north, from 6 mile all the way to 23 mile. When I got home I found out my pals had been arrested for basically being near 8 mile after dark, but not before one of them stuffed a large quantity of coke in a place you can imagine.

Sorry for the wall of text. How would I even go about doing what you mentioned? Is there a place for madness like this to be told? I seriously have many more stories to tell, all of them at least as crazy as these, if not more. I don't mean to be spouting off about this stuff here, but well, I am bored, and I don't know where else to go or what else to do. Either way, I have to go before I start telling you one of my favorites, about how a random encounter with a Russian Spetsnaz knife defense training video saved my life. I lost the ability to bend a few of my fingers backwards (was very distressful to click my mouse in a first person shooter, only to have it lay there, unwilling to heed my mental commands to come back up) but it was better than digesting a knife the hard way.

Damn it, I am done. I am not the devil. I have done bad things, but I am a good enough person to realize that the only way to fix it now is by giving back to the world more than I ever took away from it.

Seriously though, I really would like the chance to write about these things, but I never knew if anyone would be interested, or even care. Sure, my buddies would tell me this, but then I am the kind of guy to disbelieve anything anyone tells me that is good about myself. As a child my mother always told me I was an incredibly beautiful baby, with eyes worth falling in love with. All that made me think was that I was horribly disfigured, and my mother was trying to boost my self-esteem for the future. Total backfire, now I am neurotic. Thanks mom.

Low income families mostly. When you watch a cam on an old tube tv it is far more easy on the eyes than a nice 1080p picture. Also worth noting is that if you put a crappy cam on something like an ipod touch or your phone, it becomes highly watchable. You would apparently be surprised.

Nonsense. A 1080p video is fine on an old Tube TV. It will simply be downscaled. The real problem is having something that can do the decoding and being able to hook that up to an ancient TV.

Some of us have actually done stuff like this.

I don't think you're one of them.

Other way around genius. Grainy 480p looks like my grandmoms ass blown up to 1080p, but much better on your standard tube set.

I was locked up from 16 to 18 for a fist fight I did not start with an 18 year old. I was 15 at the time too ...

... Maybe the moral here is that there has to be a better way...

Thanks for sharing your experience. Glad you made it out alive and with your humanity intact.

I owe it all to having a loving childhood and a close family. I have no doubt that without that as I was developing, I would be a monster almost beyond help. It gave me the values I needed to just be a general jackass versus a stone cold killer.

I guess my point from that first post is that putting people in these situations just moves them one step closer to becoming an animal, and there is no crazier place on earth than an American prison. Most people I know would not be able to handle it as they are now, they would have to become something darker in order to survive the hell it is. That part of you, once you learn to be it, is a hard habit to ever shake off.

Given the climate of today's job market, most of these people will never find another respectable job in their life, even if they were totally rehabilitated and 100% committed to doing their best, and yet the majority of them have mouths to feed. It is simple arithmetic from there.

They say your debt to society is paid once you have done your time. That is a flat-out lie. The punishment has only begun. The system is not flawed, it is broken.

I've been reading. I think it would be interesting if you could somehow formalise your experiences. Perhaps a screenplay? It would certainly be a fascinating watch - especially if preceded by a disclaimer about the truthfulness of the depicted events!

I find it interesting on a personal level, too. I've had my own history of violence (nothing like as comprehensive as your's!) and seeing interesting events unfold and I really think that it shapes you as a person. Beliefs, biases, convictions, the lot - all forged from run-ins with events that most of us would like to forget.

I actually went to see a psychiatrist the other day. They ended up probing deep into my time at school (English Grammar School - I'm from near London) and it amazes me every day the detail that I can recall even the smallest occurrences. It seems to be similar for you in that way. These things never leave us.

No i'm a musician with 25+ year software and networking experience as a IT business owner. I am a subject matter expert in ip networking. 61% of all US upload traffic is used to illegally distribute music, movies, software, video games and ebooks without the owner's permission (sandvine). The promise of the internet is to provide prosperity for all participants not just a few unfair gatekeepers as it works today. It is completely possible for the internet to prosper creative people as well as web 2.0 shareholders and ad networks. IP enforcement has been fundamental to the success of the middle class in the first world economies for three hundred years and developing nations are improving copyright enforcement while the US is going backwards.

think you be the first person to add to my block list (he just made an account to post this rubbish)

This could be fixed with the stroke of a pen. There is no need for the bulk of that (the noncommercial sharing) to be illegal. Problem solved. Of course I don't expect you to agree, but the fact that you don't like a solution which requires you to be creative about how to monetize your music doesn't make it any less of a solution.

ethicalfan wrote:

The promise of the internet is to provide prosperity for all participants

You're pretty good at citing sources, so I'm sure you just forgot to mention where you came up with that.

I'm a musician with about the same networking experience as you. Strangely, I don't feel entitled to a magical shower of money from the sky each time someone listens to, or sends someone a copy of, one of my songs, regardless of whether that happens on the Internet or anywhere else. The fact that people might be enjoying my music or sending copies to other people who might enjoy it doesn't fill me with despair, nor do I equate rejection of the copyright status quo with the downfall of civilization. It sounds pretty good to me. They are not preventing me from profiting from my art or making a living, and they are not discouraging me from creating more. I certainly don't think we need to waste prison resources on such people.

I know it's off-topic, but I was watching a few Louis Theroux documentaries (I strongly recommend those, by the way) a few weeks back and the one about US prisons was just horrifying. Or at least the one he visited on that show. I'm not particularly timid but I wouldn't last a week in there.

It's kind of a weird contrast when you look at the Scandinavian penal system; a guy like me would probably just make friends.

Low income families mostly. When you watch a cam on an old tube tv it is far more easy on the eyes than a nice 1080p picture. Also worth noting is that if you put a crappy cam on something like an ipod touch or your phone, it becomes highly watchable. You would apparently be surprised.

Just looked for their last release, it's dated 09-09-2011. The Guard 2011 DVDSCR XViD AC3 - IMAGiNE. The group did all manner of movie related piracy, including rips of DVD and Blu Ray discs.

Interestingly, thinking back on the situation, they were quite popular while they were at work. Equally as interesting is the fact that to the average torrent user, their disappearance went completely unnoticed. Honestly, in my opinion, locking these fellows up will accomplish next to nothing. Picking fruit off the tree removes that fruit, but if you leave the tree standing it will grow back. If law enforcement truly wants to stop piracy of intellectual property they need to cut the tree down.

There is a slight problem though. Nobody truly has the authority or the means necessary to stop it. The day governments can all get their acts together and be on the same page in regards to something like this is the day we have far bigger problems to worry about. Another issue is how do you take down torrent sites that operate with backup servers spread across several foreign countries, and that have a decentralized leadership?

The only way I can think of is to cut connections to foreign countries.